The Hunt

Chapter 12

The rest of my working day was awkward, Peter avoiding me like the plague and only entering the kitchen when he had a multitude of tickets, wanting to keep our socialisation to a minimum.

I was shocked at his outburst, the new information that Saskia had been threatened with banishment from Cole surprising me, although, I wasn't too sure what it meant.

I was unsure how the wolves viewed banishment. I only knew that back in our colony, it wasn't overly common, someone having to commit a crime as sinister as murder to even be considered for it.

Markus didn't tend to care about our so called laws, seeming to only be worried about how big our colony was, encouraging women to birth as many children as they could, wanting a bigger population so would would be stronger against the beasts.

However, nobody really listened to his encouragement, Mothers worrying about the quality of life for their children, our colony pretty poor, and food stock low, rationing not an uncommon practise among the people who weren't ambassadors for The Hunt.

Cassia could tell something was wrong with me after Peter's comment, although I was unsure whether she heard it or not, our human hearing dire.

She continued to glance at me strangely as I tried to keep up with all of the orders, trying to focus all of my attention on not spilling the porridge, not wanting a repeat of what had happened in front of all of the beasts.

I was more than embarrassed, having to get on my hands and knees right in front of the beasts at their table and scrub at the porridge, spending far too long sweeping up all of the tiny shards of china.

A few wolves offered to help, but returned to their seats once I ushered them away.

It was my mess. I needed to clean it up.

It was now the evening, and noticing my foul mood, Cassia had sent me home, claiming that dinner service would be easy, the dining hall expected to be almost empty, which I didn't believe, but took her offer anyway.

I was regretting asking Cole to work in the kitchen, it not turning out how I wanted and being much more difficult than I had imagined.

However, I didn't want him thinking I was some sort of quitter, so decided I would keep at it, no matter how awkward Peter made it.

I made it back to my cottage, jumping in the shower immediately, needing to scrub off all of the grime, sweat and dirt that had accumulated on my body since this morning, cringing at just how dirty I had become from being in that hot sweaty room the majority of the day.

A knock on the door had me panicking, rushing out of the shower and pulling on a fresh pair of clothes, running to pull the door open to reveal Amara, her face looking glum.

"I heard about what happened," she mumbled, sending me a sad smile as she stepped in, shutting the door behind her as quickly as possible, keeping the cold draft at bay.

I chuckled, shaking my head. "News here does travel fast."

"It was your first day," assured Amara, watching me as I slumped down in my armchair, groaning. "You'll get the hang of it soon."

"I should have chosen something easier."

"Well shall we go and see Alpha Cole and ask if you can-"

"No!" I exclaimed, holding my hands out, panicking. "I don't want him thinking I'm some useless human. He already sees me as lousy."

Amara sighed, shaking her head, helping herself to some of my leftovers, offering me a bite, which I declined, having seen enough food for one day.

"I'm sure he doesn't think that, Reya," said Amara, smiling at me, the grin not quite reaching her eyes. "We don't have the best relationship with the humans, so it will just take him some getting used to."